Summary
Do our heroes and heroines have to be perfect? How do religious ikons link to iconoclasm and the labelling of film idols & politicians "icons of our time". Matthew Sweet is joined by film historian Pamela Hutchinson, bioethicist Tom Shakespeare, historian Julia Lovell and psychotherapist Mark Vernon.
Julia Lovell’s book Maoism a Global History is out soon Mark Vernon’s book A Secret History of Christianity is out soon.
For more information about the BBC TV series of programmes profiling modern icons from sport, cinema, politics, exploration .... go to bbc.co.uk/icons
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's |
| 0:27.5 | out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:36.9 | So, you've succumbed. |
| 0:38.8 | You heard the Arts and Ideas podcast calling to you, like that pie in the fridge. |
| 0:44.3 | Well, my name's Matthew Sweet, and I'm here to tell you that really there's no need to feel guilty. |
| 0:49.9 | Give in to your desires. |
| 0:51.6 | We all need ideas. |
| 0:53.0 | We all need the arts. And you're going to get them |
| 0:55.8 | right here, right now, after this short message. Why does music move us? How does it do it? Well, |
| 1:03.5 | if these are questions that have been firing you up, I've got the very podcast for you. I'm Tom Service |
| 1:09.7 | from BBC Radio 3 and from Schubert's symphonies to |
| 1:12.7 | video game music from how to start a piece of music and when to end it. From background music to |
| 1:18.6 | bird song, from Beethoven to Beyonce, from Bach to the future. Thank you very much indeed. |
| 1:24.7 | The listing service podcast is your guide to how music works. |
| 1:29.1 | Add all kinds of music too. |
| 1:31.1 | The mastery and mechanics behind the magic. |
| 1:34.2 | Just search for the listening service on BBC Sounds |
| 1:37.1 | and learn more about the music we all love. |
| 1:41.3 | Eggs Benedict, Taylor Swift's eyeliner, faulty towers, the cypress trees outside Fiona Fullerton's |
... |
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